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Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Savory Bread Muffins

This week my husband suggested having only soup for dinner and some bread to go with it. The thought of baking fresh bread at home gave me quite a kick and I started planning and searching for good recipes online and from my archives. I wanted a one meal bread with no left overs and this recipe was exactly that. Although I halved the recipe and changed a few ingredients, the technique was what excited me and I was just too happy to see the results. Super soft from inside and crusty on the outside, these bread muffins became the perfect companion for my piping hot tomato carrot soup. The best part of baking these bread muffins was that my 2 year old loved them and kept asking for more. A happy baker and a happy mother!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups bread flour ( you can replace it with all purpose flour and include 1 egg)

1 tsp instant dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp steak seasoning (you can replace it with any seasoning of your choice)

1 tbsp olive oil

100-150 ml warm milk

For the filling

2 tbsp finely grated garlic

1 tbsp mixed herbs

Butter to roll

Direction

Mix the yeast and sugar in warm milk and let it stand until frothy, about 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the rest of the ingredients and pour the yeast mixture little at a time to knead a smooth elastic dough. Transfer the dough onto a clean slightly floured surface and continue kneading for 5-10 minutes till you get a smooth yet moist non sticky dough. Lightly oil your hands and rub it on the dough. Cover with a cling wrap and transfer to the bowl and keep in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until doubled.

Now, take the dough and punch it down 2-3 times to bring it to its original size. Make equal sized balls out of the dough, about 4-5, and make further 4-5 balls out of each individual ball. Take a non stick muffin pan (you may grease it lightly as well) and take a small ball, made from the first ball, and gently roll on the butter, then on the herbs and lastly on the garlic. Repeat till you are done with the 4-5 balls made from a single ball. Make sure not to overdo with the herbs and garlic, else you might get overpowered by the flavor. You may roll the mini dough balls alternatively on the garlic and the herbs to get a more balanced flavor. Gently press these mini dough balls into a single muffin hole and then continue the process with the rest of the mini balls.

Cover the muffin pan and return to the warm place for another 45 minutes for the second rise. When you are near the end time, pre heat the oven at 200 degree celsius for 15 minutes. Bake the muffins for 15-20 minutes until golden on top. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack. Serve warm.